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(1) Getting the annual equivalent salary from an hourly rate works like this:
Assuming a 40 hour week and no downtime, there are 2080 working hours
in a calendar year. A $25/hr job would yield you gross income of
$52,000 per year; $35/hr, $72,800, and so on.
Of course, as a 1099 or corp-to-corp employee, you're not only doing
your own withholding and paying self-employment taxes, but must
arrange for your own benefits; however, asserting that $25 an hour is
equivalent to $12,500 a year is mathematical and business illiteracy
(innumeracy?), even if you're claiming the $12.5K figure as take-home
pay.
(2) Note that most of the "contractor" jobs posted on places like DICE
do not reflect the rate that a client is willing to pay for a
technical writer's services; they reflect the rate that an agency
middleman is willing to pay a technical writer for pimping out the
writer to the client. The rate that the middleman charges the
temporary employer is higher, sometimes considerably higher. If
you're not good at marketing yourself and finding your own work, this
reduced hourly rate might actually be a good deal; if you're good at
marketing yourself, avoid it if at all possible.
- bc
--
Barry Campbell <barry -at- campbell-online -dot- com> http://campbell-online.com
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